1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a microelectromechanical gyroscope with open-loop reading device and a control method for a microelectromechanical gyroscope.
2. Description of the Related Art
As is known, the use of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) has witnessed an ever-increasing diffusion in various sectors of technology and has yielded encouraging results especially in the production of inertial sensors, microintegrated gyroscopes, and electromechanical oscillators for a wide range of applications.
MEMS of the above type are usually based upon microelectromechanical structures that comprise at least one mass, which is connected to a fixed body (stator) by springs and is movable with respect to the stator according to pre-determined degrees of freedom. The movable mass and the stator are capacitively coupled through a plurality of respective comb-fingered and mutually facing electrodes so as to form capacitors. The movement of the movable mass with respect to the stator, for example on account of application of an external force, modifies the capacitance of the capacitors, whence it is possible to trace back to the relative displacement of the movable mass with respect to the fixed body and hence to the applied force. Vice versa, by supplying appropriate biasing voltages, it is possible to apply an electrostatic force on the movable mass to set it in motion. In addition, in order to obtain electromechanical oscillators, the frequency response of inertial MEMS structures is exploited, which typically is of a second-order low-pass type, with a resonance frequency. By way of example, FIGS. 1 and 2 show the plot of the magnitude and phase of the transfer function between the force applied on the movable mass and its displacement with respect to the stator in an inertial MEMS structure.
In particular, MEMS gyroscopes have a more complex electromechanical structure, which includes two masses that are movable with respect to the stator and coupled to one another so as to have a relative degree of freedom. The two movable masses are both capacitively coupled to the stator. One of the masses is dedicated to driving and is kept in oscillation at the resonance frequency. The other mass is drawn along in oscillating motion and, in the case of rotation of the microstructure with respect to a pre-determined gyroscopic axis with an angular velocity, is subjected to a Coriolis force proportional to the angular velocity itself. In practice, the driven mass operates as an accelerometer that enables detection of the Coriolis force and acceleration and hence makes it possible to trace back to the angular velocity.
To operate properly, a MEMS gyroscope requires, in addition to the microstructure, a driving device, which has the task of maintaining the movable mass in oscillation at the resonance frequency, and a device for reading the displacements of the driven mass, according to the relative degree of freedom of the driving mass. Said displacements, in fact, are indicative of the Coriolis force and consequently of the angular velocity, and are detectable through electrical read signals correlated to the variations of the capacitive coupling between the driven mass and the stator. As a result of driving at the resonance frequency, the read signals, determined by the rotation of the gyroscope and correlated to the angular velocity, are in the form of dual-side-band-suppressed-carrier (DSB-SC) signals; the carrier is in this case the velocity of oscillation of the driving mass and has the same frequency as the mechanical resonance frequency.
Known reading devices detect the read signals at terminals coupled to the driven mass and demodulate them downstream of the sensing point to bring them back into base band. It is hence necessary to include purposely provided devices, among which at least one demodulator and a synchronization device, such as for example a PLL circuit, which generates a demodulation signal starting from actuation signals for the driving mass. The need to include these devices entails, however, disadvantages, principally because it causes a greater encumbrance and increases the power consumption, which, as is known, is extremely important in modern electronic devices. In addition, the synchronization devices must be specifically designed for generating also a high-frequency clock signal for the demodulator and are thus particularly complex.